Billionaire's Second Chance (Billionaires #16) - Jennifer Hartley Page 0,20

we’ll be able to make quite a dent.”

“But didn’t you have things you needed to take care of for your parents’ estate?” Scott reminded me.

“Yeah, but I can do that tomorrow or the next day. I’d rather stay here today and help you guys with this,”

“You sure?” Scott asked as a smile grew on his face.

“Positive.”

Clara huffed and shook her head, and then the three of us all grabbed the bushel barrels and went deeper into the fields to start picking the produce.

After a while, I had to take off my shirt and stick the corner of it through my belt loop as I worked because the glaring sun was brutal. I didn’t know how the two of them did this kind of thing every day. It was tough work and definitely not for the faint of heart, machinery or not. I caught Clara glancing over at me a few times and figured that my lack of a shirt might be proving to be a bit distracting for her—good. By the time it was dipping into the evening, we had made a sizeable dent on the field and had rows of filled bushel barrels lining the side of the house.

The three of us walked up the farmhouse steps together after finishing one last round of picking. The rest would have to wait until tomorrow.

“I can’t thank you enough for your help today, DeShawn,” Scott said as we both took tall glasses of cold water from Clara’s hands. “We couldn’t have done as much as we did without you.”

“No problem.” I smiled as I drank the whole glass in what felt like one swallow. I didn’t think I’d ever tasted water so good. I was guessing that it was just because of how thirsty I was. “What time do you want me here in the morning?”

“You want to do it again?” Clara asked. “Did you get too much sun today because I don’t think you’re thinking straight?”

I chuckled and let her refill my glass for me. “There’s still more to do,” I said after I thanked her for the refill. “And I’m not always here to be able to help like I am now. The estate stuff can wait another day. It’s not going anywhere. And I’ve got things taken care of at work for the moment. So yeah, I want to do it again tomorrow. I want to help out until I have to leave.”

Scott threw an arm around my shoulders and gave me a solid hug and pat on the back. “Thanks, man,” he said. “Really, it means a lot, and it helps a ton.”

When he let go, I looked at Clara, and her expression was difficult for me to read.

“Why don’t you just stay here for tonight,” Scott said. “I’ve got some spare stuff for you to use, and that way, we could get up early and get right started in the morning. Unless you need to get back to that fancy hotel of yours tonight.”

“No,” I said. “I don’t. Sounds fine with me.” I turned to look at Clara, whose mouth was hanging open slightly. “As long as it’s okay with your sister,” I said.

“You don’t mind at all, do you, Clara?” he asked.

In his mind, he thought they were both just glad and grateful to have help. And I was sure that Scott thought it was no big deal to have me stay over. I’d spent the night at their place dozens of times when we were kids. That was when we were kids, though, and long before I had banged his sister—twice.

“Sure,” she said hesitantly.

I could see the struggle behind her eyes. She didn’t want me to stay, or maybe she did, but either way, it was going to be difficult knowing that we were sleeping right down the hall from each other.

9

Clara

I was amazed that I had gotten any sleep at all last night with DeShawn just down the hall. But since Scott was also just down the hall, it made it pretty easy to know that I shouldn’t even set foot out of my room in order to avoid tempting fate.

I slept in late in the morning without meaning to. I guess it was the long day of harvesting that had gotten to me and made me feel a bit more tired than usual. By the time I got up, the boys were already in the field. I paused in the kitchen for a few minutes to make some coffee and kickstart the